Between US President Donald Trump’s war in west Asia and a chip shortage triggered by Nvidia’s focus on supplying artificial intelligence (AI) memory chips, India’s top three smartphone brands Vivo, Oppo and Samsung, as well as Realme, Xiaomi and Nothing have emerged as the first casualties in a once-thriving market—increasing smartphone prices by as much as 40% across their portfolios.
The price hikes are significant: smartphones make for India’s single-largest electronics category, with sales of over $43 billion through 2025. Since the pandemic in 2021, India has struggled to revive its smartphone market due to a stagnation of new features and an increasingly saturated market.
While companies so far managed single-digit revenue growth on the back of rising premium phone sales, the current market conditions come as a double whammy: consumers are putting phone purchases on the backburner due to rising prices of basic needs such as cooking gas even as the rise in prices does nothing to aid the ailing market.
Vivo, Samsung and Oppo accounted for 47% of the 152 million smartphones sold in the country last year, according to data from market researcher International Data Corp. (IDC) India. Taking Realme and Xiaomi into account, these five brands represent two-thirds of all smartphones sold in India every year—thus making the price hikes sweeping and significant.
Emails about the price increases show that the hikes are sweeping, said retailers across India who received them over the past one month, requesting anonymity since they were not authorized to share the information. Mint has seen copies of the emails that retailers received announcing the price hikes. Vivo, Samsung and Oppo did not immediately respond to Mint’s emailed queries seeking comment.
From 2 March to 16 March, Vivo India increased prices of two of its sub- ₹20,000 smartphones—Vivo T4 Lite and T4x—by up to 17%. Vivo India, as per an internal pricing table of nine smartphones accessed by Mint via the All India Mobile Retailers Association (Aimra), increased prices over three tranches from 30 October to 16 March.
Budget, mid-range phones
The cumulative hike is steep across devices. While Vivo’s T4 Lite budget smartphone previously started at ₹9,999, it currently retails at ₹13,999—a 40% increase.
Samsung increased prices across its mid-range smartphones. The company’s Galaxy A56 smartphone, which previously cost ₹47,999, currently retails at ₹62,499 in a marginally modified avatar under the ‘A57’ moniker—a price hike of 30%.
Its Galaxy A36 smartphone was launched under its new ‘A37’ avatar on 25 March at a price hike of 36%—up to ₹52,999 from ₹38,999 previously.
Oppo India has increased prices of five models by up to 18%—marking a flat hike of ₹2,000 on all phones ranging from ₹10,999 for Oppo A6x to ₹27,999 for A6 Pro.
Analysts and retailers said the price increases are very likely just the start.
According to Tarun Pathak, director for research at Counterpoint India, memory chip prices for smartphones have gone up by over 120% from December to February. This has led to significant disruption, which was absorbed over the past three months due to available inventory with retailers. Now, the impact is being felt—the cost of a memory chip is up to almost 40% of a smartphone’s bill of materials cost from about 18% before, he said.
“Component makers are increasing prices to meet demand, and with consumer demand stagnant, brands are now passing the cost on to their retail networks,” Pathak said.
Kailash Lakhyani, founding chairman of the All-India Mobile Retailers Association, added that retailers have already been told that the current price hikes are not only permanent, but further price increases will come through in the coming quarters.
No respite
“Most of the current price hikes are due to rising memory chip costs, while some of it is due to rising commodity costs such as plastic used for moulding in phones, due to the West Asia war. As per emails that we are receiving, brands have informed that there is no near-term respite, and further price hikes are likely as memory chip prices are unlikely to reduce before the first half of 2027,” Lakhyani said.
On Monday, Xiaomi started announcing price hikes. In an email to retailers, Xiaomi India’s distribution network increased prices of its Redmi Pad tablet by 3-6% depending upon variants. Xiaomi told its retailers the price hike is permanent. Through March, Xiaomi also increased prices of six of its smartphones by up to 32%. Mint has seen a copy of this email as well.
Realme, too, raised prices of nine of its models by up to 50%, including its sub- ₹10,000 C71 4G.
Spokespersons for Xiaomi India and Realme India did not immediately respond to Mint's queries.
The current price increases could lead to a drop of almost 10% in annual smartphone sales in India and a similar crash in net smartphone market revenue.
“The truth here is that smartphone makers are raising prices because component suppliers are catering to the high-demand AI memory chips,” said Navkendar Singh, associate vice-president at IDC India. “This is unlikely to change in the near term.”
Singh said the West Asia war has ensured that consumers are spending money only on necessary commodities as the cost of fuel and cooking gas shoot upward.
“Smartphones are thus emerging as an ancillary area of investment and even though phones are necessary today, new purchases are being held off,” he said.
Search for alternatives
Singh added that even essential upgrades for smartphones are being held off.
“With prices rising steeply, buyers are looking at the second-hand market or are looking at temporary repairs to prolong their smartphone usage cycle—instead of buying new ones,” he said.
The current market conditions, Singh said, are leading to a margin war between component makers, brands and retailers.
“The crux of the matter is that no party is currently willing to sacrifice on margins in order to revive consumer demand in the electronics market. Without some party willing to compromise, the market is absolutely likely to be at a standstill through this year,” he added.